ose rights, and then, in the
corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim
which stands for these great things.

The mission of America is the only thing that a sailor or soldier should
think about; he has nothing to do with the formulation of her policy; he
is to support her policy, whatever it is--but he is to support her
policy in the spirit of herself, and the strength of our policy is that
we, who for the time being administer the affairs of this nation, do not
originate her spirit; we attempt to embody it; we attempt to realize it
in action we are dominated by it, we do not dictate it.

And so with every man in arms who serves the nation--he stands and waits
to do the thing which the nation desires. America sometimes seems
perhaps to forget her programs, or, rather, I would say that sometimes
those who represent her seem to forget her programs, but the people
never forget them. It is as startling as it is touching to see how
whenever you touch a principle you touch the hearts of the people of the
United States. They listen to your debates of policy, they determine
which party they will prefer to power, they choose and prefer as
ordinary men; but their real affection, their real force, their real
irresistible momentum, is for the ideas which men embody.

I never go on the streets of a great city without feeling that somehow I
do not confer elsewhere than on the streets with the great spirit of the
people themselves, going about their business, attending to the things
which concern them, and yet carrying a treasure at their hearts all the
while, ready to be stirred not only as individuals, but as members of a
great union of hearts that constitutes a patriotic people.

And so this sight in the river touches me merely as a symbol of that,
and it quickens the pulse of every man who realizes these things to have
anything to do with them. When a crisis occurs in this country,
gentlemen, it is as if you put your hand on the pulse of a dynamo, it is
as if the things which you were in connection with were spiritually
bred. You had nothing to do with them except, if you listen truly, to
speak the things that you hear. These things now brood over the river,
this spirit now moves with the men who represent the nation in the navy,
these things will move upon the waters in the manoeuvres; no threat
lifted against any man, against any nation, against any interest, but
just a great, solemn evidence th